1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to network communication devices, and more particularly to a home gateway and a tuner sharing method.
2. Description of Related Art
A home gateway connects more and more customer premised equipments (CPEs) in a home network, such as, an Internet protocol set-top box (IP STB), a network attached storage (NAS), a personal computer (PC), a mobile phone, and a personal digital assistant (PDA), for example. The home gateway connects the CPEs to a cable modem termination system (CMTS), and communicates with the Internet via the CMTS.
Generally, the home gateway comprises a limited number of tuners that comprise electronic circuits, which provide services for multiple CPEs connected to the home gateway, where each tuner modulates one working frequency of the home gateway to enable the CPE to communicate with the Internet successfully. However, one tuner can only provide services for one CPE at one time. For example, if one home gateway comprises four tuners, the home gateway can provide service for four CPEs at one time. In that case, if the home gateway connects five CPEs, the home gateway cannot meet demands for the five CPE if the five CPEs ask for tuner services from the home gateway at one time.
Currently, a solution is to add more tuners to the home gateway to meet more the demands of the CPEs. However, the solution would add cost and enlarge size of the home gateway by adding more tuners. Therefore, it is a large challenge to provide the home gateway to serve more CPEs under no additional cost of the home gateway.